Paul Fox

As guitarist and co-songwriter with the Ruts, Paul "Foxy" Fox, who has died aged 56 of cancer, helped create some of the best loved and most enduring work of the punk era. The Ruts, who came together in 1977, were among the best of the second wave of British punk bands, inspired by the likes of the Sex Pistols and the Clash. Enthusiastically supported by John Peel (obituary, October 27 2004), Babylon's Burning, a typically forthright commentary on the discontent in Britain's cities, reached number seven in the 1979 charts, and the follow-up, Something That I Said, also charted high. Their first album, The Crack, was a classic.

Like many in that second wave, the Ruts hailed not from the art school milieu of the first wave but from the London suburbs. Decent musicians, they had schooled themselves in jazz-funk and pub rock. Fox played a pivotal songwriting role, and quickly became a model punk guitarist at a time when the three-chord thrash was the height of many of his contemporaries' ambitions. The Crack showcased his menacing, often haunting, style to great effect, but also revealed his versatility; he was a lover of reggae and could switch styles with ease.

Fox was born in Bermondsey, south London, the son of publican parents. The family moved to Hayes, Middlesex, when he was a child. He laid the foundations of his musical career in a hippy commune in Anglesey during the early 1970s, where he formed a progressive rock band called Aslan with two Hayes schoolfriends, Malcolm Owen and Paul Mattocks. When the commune disbanded in 1975, Fox returned to London and joined a funk band, Hit & Run, which played the pub circuit.

By the end of 1977, with punk raging through the capital, an energised Fox had teamed up with Malcolm Owen (vocals), John Jennings (bass) and Dave Ruffy (drums) to form the Ruts. Fired by Fox's furious guitar-playing and the charismatic Owen's vocals, within a year the Ruts had made a significant impact. A loveable and lively character, Fox immersed himself in the horseplay and high jinks of nationwide Ruts tours, much of it with their kindred spirits, the Damned. With Owen, he was most often the focus of attention on stage.

But the heady days did not last. In 1980, Owen died of a heroin overdose, a drug that Fox would also struggle with in future years. After much agonising, Fox and the two other surviving band-members continued, as Ruts DC - with Fox sharing some of the vocals - until late 1982, after the release of the patchy Animal Now album, and the dub reggae Rhythm Collision that further enhanced Fox's credentials, but sold poorly.

Fox then joined a west London band called Dirty Strangers, which he freely described as "a budget-priced Rolling Stones"; they recorded two albums on which Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood guested. Richards was a fan - they toured together briefly in the US - and Fox was also openly admired by the likes of Pete Townshend and Jimmy Page.

After forming his own shortlived band, Choir Militia, in 1983, Fox played with rock group Screaming Lobsters in 1987 and with Fluffy Kittens, an Indie outfit, from 1991 to 1994. He then went into what he called semi-retirement in Ruislip, Middlesex. Carpentry became his main source of income, but he recorded a couple of low-profile singles with the ad hoc Chelsea Punk Rock Allstars (1997) and the ska artist Lauren Aitken (2000).

Last year, the Bad Manners frontman Buster Bloodvessel convinced Fox to form a new touring band, Foxy's Ruts, which, featuring his elder son Lawrence on drums, toured Europe and played at the Punk and Disorderly Festival in Berlin. Fox's final performance was at a London Ruts reunion with Ruffy, Jennings and US punk legend Henry Rollins on vocals. His last work was Lockdown, another dub reggae album, recorded earlier this year with the DubCats band.

In 2000 he separated from his wife Sharon, but they were latterly on good terms. She survives him, as do his sons, Lawrence and William.

· Paul Fox, guitarist, born April 11 1951; died October 21 2007.

· This article was amended on Friday November 2 2007. In the above obituary of Paul Fox, we named the two schoolfriends with whom he formed the band Aslan as "Owen and Paul Mattocks". They were Malcolm Owen and Paul Mattocks. This has been corrected.